We are blessed!

About six months after Bill and I got married, the thought of adopting a little girl from China wouldn't leave me. It took some convincing for Bill though. We were finally at a great point in our life. A good marriage, great (almost grown) kids, and for the first time we were able to do things like travel and spend great time together doing things we wanted to do. Why would we want, at our age, to start over? All good points. But the more Bill and I researched the plight of little girls in China, we knew we had to do it.

It was last January when we first saw Isabelle's picture and knew she was our daughter. The last year has been an amazing adventure. Every door was open to us and everything went very smoothly. We know Heavenly Father was in the details of our adoption of Isabelle. June 11, 2007 will be forever celebrated as our "Forever Family" day - the day we adopted Isabelle.

What started out as being what we thought was a great thing to do has ended up being AMAZING!

Who knew?? Looking back, our Heavenly Father knew and little by little he was preparing us so we would be open to what most people thought was a crazy idea. So many people have said to us how lucky Isabelle is to have been taken out of China, adopted by a family who will raise her in the gospel and who loves her so much. Even though that may be true, we are the blessed ones to have Isabelle in our family. She has been the greatest joy and has opened our eyes to so many wonderful things. You can feel such a sweet spirit around her at all times. She is so fun and silly. She is the softest, sweetest most empathetic loving child I have ever seen. She always has a love, hug, kiss, a nose wrinkle, or a very sweet angelic "hi" for everyone. She loves to be held, loved, tickled, and she loves to love back. She LOVES her Jie Jie's (big sisters). She can't wait to hang out with them everyday when they get home from school. She imitates everything they do from putting bobby pins in their hair to listening to their iPod. Isabelle imitates it all! It keeps us laughing and very grateful that Kaycie and Ravyn are such great kids to emulate! She loves her Dad and squeals with delight everyday when he walks through the door.

No, WE are the lucky ones! We are lucky to have Isabelle a part of our family. We are blessed to have the greatest children who have all accepted her with open arms and love her more than could ever be imagined! We are truly blessed.